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Migrant caravan through Mexico

The Central American migrant caravans,[1] also known as the Viacrucis del Migrante ("Migrant's Way of the Cross"),[2][3][4] are migrant caravans that travel from the GuatemalaMexico border to the MexicoUnited States border. The largest and best known of these were organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (Village Without Borders) that set off during Holy Week in early 2017 and 2018 from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), but such caravans of migrants began arriving several years earlier, and other unrelated caravans continued to arrive into late 2018.

There is some disagreement as to whether the migrant caravans are primarily composed of refugees seeking asylum or are merely large concentrations of traditional economic migrants. Numerous human rights organizations document the increase in violence and abuse in recent years in Central American countries.[5][6][7][8] A report by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, cited by Amnesty International, noted that between 2007 to 2012, several Central American countries had the highest average annual female homicide rates in the world.[9][10] Other studies of the composition of the caravans have indicated that the caravans more resemble traditional economic migrants.[11][12][13][14][15][16] The causes of the migration, as well as the proper way to settle or deport the migrants themselves, remains a source of political debate within the U.S.

Drought and crop failure in the Central American dry corridor and Climate change in Honduras has been a factor in the formation of the caravans.[17][18][19][20][21][22]

Pueblo Sin Fronteras supported its first Holy Week caravan in 2017.[citation needed]

On 25 March 2018, a group of about 700 migrants (80% from Honduras) began their way north from Tapachula.[23] By 1 April, the caravan had arrived in Matas Romero, Oaxaca, and grown to about 1,200 people.[24] In mid-April, 500 migrants continued northward from Mexico Citythe caravan's last official stoptoward Tijuana, in separate groups riding atop freight train cars.[25] Two busloads of the migrants arrived in Tijuana on 25 April and a further four busloads were making their way from Hermosillo.[26] On 29 April 2018, after traveling 2,500 miles (4,000km) across Mexico, the migrants' caravan came to an end at Friendship Park at the MexicoUnited States border in Tijuana.[27][28]

More than 150 migrants prepared to seek asylum from United States immigration officials.[29] United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the caravan "a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system".[29] On 30 April, Sessions' Justice Department announced criminal charges against eleven people for crossing the border illegally.[30]

American aid worker Scott Warren with the organization No More Deaths was arrested on 12 May on charges of illegally harboring people in the country, hours after releasing a report accusing the U.S. Border Patrol of tampering with water sources for migrants crossing the Arizona desert.[31] He pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for 14 November 2018.[32]

Honduras is one of the poorest and most violent countries in Central America. The country experienced a coup d'tat in 2009 and is one of the most unequal countries in the world, while the poverty rate stood at 64.3% in 2018. Drought and crop failure is also one of the causes of emigration.[33][34]

According to the newspaper Le Monde, "Caught between extreme poverty and ultraviolence, more and more Hondurans are choosing to flee their country, driven by the most extreme despair". An opposition Honduran politician considers that migrants "do not run after the American dream, they flee the Honduran nightmare".[35]

Migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador gathered on 12 October to meet at San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras. The caravan began the next day, intending to reach the United States to flee from violence, poverty, and political repression.[36][37] The caravan began with about 160 migrants but quickly gathered over 500 participants as it marched through Honduras.[38] Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran congressman and one of the march coordinators, stated that the goal of the caravan was to find safety in numbers as it traveled north.[39] Though he was at first convinced that the caravan was a spontaneous movement, Fuentes has since told several news agencies that the caravan was organized and popularized through a faked social media account bearing his own name and photograph, which has since been deleted from Facebook. Fuentes says he first heard about the fake account from Irineo Mujica of the organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras.[40] The same day it left, United States Vice President Mike Pence urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home.[41] Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernndez advised his citizens to return home and to "not let yourselves be used for political purposes".[42] Pueblo Sin Fronteras did not organize the October caravan, but expressed its solidarity with it. Irineo Mujico, the director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, did not himself recommend another caravan to the United States, instead advising its members to seek asylum in Mexico.[43]

As the caravan passed through the Guatemalan city of Chiquimula, Fuentes was arrested by police and deported.[44] Other Hondurans, traveling on buses, had their papers seized or were arrested, forcing migrants to travel on foot.[45] On entering Tecn Umn on 18 October 2018, the caravan numbered around 5,000, but began shrinking due to the speed of parts of the caravan and its reception in shelters in Tecn Umn.[46] The same day, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the U.S. military and close the U.S.Mexico border to keep the caravan from entering the country.[47] Trump also threatened to cut aid to countries allowing the caravans to pass through.[48] Also on 18 October, Mexico flew two Boeing 727s transporting Federal Police officers to the GuatemalaMexico border.[49] The next day, 19 October, an estimated 4,000 migrants had gathered in Ciudad Tecn Umn in Guatemala. Mexican officials, including the ambassador to Guatemala, requested that migrants appear individually at the border for processing. The migrants ignored the request, and marched on the bridge, overwhelming Guatemalan police and Mexican barriers on the bridge, then entered Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, and encountered Federal Police in riot gear. After an hour-long standoff with police, whom migrants threw shoes and stones at, tear gas was used to push the migrants back onto the bridge. Officials reported that at least six Mexican police officers had been injured. After hostilities ended, migrants formed into lines and began processing by Mexican authorities. By the mid-afternoon, migrants were allowed entry in Mexico and were taken by bus to Tapachula. According to the Commissioner of the Federal Police, Manelich Castilla Craviotto, this was for processing and shelter. Migrants with valid visas and documentation were allowed immediate entrance, while asylum-seekers would be detained in a migration center for 45 days.[50]

On 20 October, about 2,000 migrants who had crossed the Suchiate River and entered Ciudad Hidalgo decided to rebuild the caravan to continue their trek to the United States.[51] The caravan again resumed its march early on 21 October from Tapachula.[52] A force of 700 Federal Police officers, mostly women, formed a human barricade on the SuchiateTapachula highway, but withdrew as the 5,000-strong caravan of migrants came within 200 meters (660ft). By the afternoon, the migrants reached Tapachula and its leaders decided to rest there, 40 kilometers (25mi) inside Mexico.[53] Their march began again the next day, bound for Huixtla, another 40 kilometres (25mi) away from Tapachula. Simultaneously, Guatemalan officials reported that another thousand migrants entered the country from Honduras, while another 1,000 migrants were reported making for Tapachula from Ciudad Hidalgo.[54]

Irineo Mujica was arrested in Ciudad Hidalgo on 22 October while walking with a group of migrants to a church. Mujica was pulled out of a crowd of migrants by Mexican authorities and pushed into a white van. According to Pueblo Sin Fronteras, he was not involved in organizing the caravan and was conducting humanitarian work in Tapachula.[55] Mujica has since claimed that he and Pueblo Sin Fronteras were initially opposed to the timing of this migrant caravan, because they believed it would be used to build anti-immigration sentiment during the 2018 US midterm election.[40]

Also on 22 October, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would begin curtailing tens of millions of dollars in aid to three Central American nations, because they did not stop the caravan.[56][57] President Trump also threatened to send the U.S. military to close the border and stop the caravan.[58]

On 26 October, when the caravan was in the Arriaga Municipality of the state of Chiapas, Mexican President Enrique Pea Nieto unveiled his program entitled "Ests en tu casa" ("You are at home").[59] This initiative allows caravan migrants meeting certain criteria to receive benefits and begin to normalize their immigration status in Mexico. Migrants who follow Mexican laws and are granted refugee status will, according to the plan, be entitled to temporary work permits and IDs, medical attention, housing in local establishments, and schooling for children.[60] In order to qualify, however, migrants must agree to settle in the states of Chiapas or Oaxaca and not continue to move north.[60]

As the second caravan entered Mexico on 30 October, the main body of some 4,000 migrants, at Santiago Niltepec, demanded "safe and dignified" transportation to Mexico City. Migrants still crossing into Mexico over the Suchiate river were dissuaded by Mexican helicopters and police.[61]

"The fact that the first of these caravans was able to move from Honduras into Guatemala and then into Mexico is inspiring other migrants to travel in large groups, reversing the long-established logic of Central American migration to the United States: Rather than trying to travel undetected, some migrants are trading invisibility for safety in numbers."- Kirk Semple and Elisabeth Malkin for the New York Times, 31 October 2018[62] "...at least 100 were "kidnapped" (exhausted walkers were lured into vehicles) in the state of Puebla and allegedly handed over to the Zetas gang..."[63]

Scientists are seeing the impact of climate change that is causing crop failures and exacerbating poverty in Central America, thereby creating what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called "climate refugees."[64] According to Robert Albro, a researcher at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, "The main reason people are moving is because they dont have anything to eat. This has a strong link to climate change we are seeing tremendous climate instability that is radically changing food security in the region."[65]

A week before the 2018 midterm elections, the US Government sent 5,200 active-duty soldiers to the US-Mexico border to "harden" it with the 2,100 National Guard troops already present.[101]

On November 23, mayor of Tijuana Juan Manuel Gastlum declared a "humanitarian crisis" in response to the large number of migrants in the city.[102] By this date, over 5,000 members of the caravan were staying at the Tijuana Stadium a structure with a capacity of 3,000.[103]

On November 25, a group of approximately 500 migrants marched to the San Ysidro Port of Entry to demand answers. Frustrated by the slow pace of asylum application processing (approximately 60 per day) and the dire living conditions in their tent cities, they attempted to bypass the Mexican Federal Police to reach the border wall when a commotion occurred.[104] A member of the caravan was caught on video throwing rocks at border agents while at the border wall. In response, the United States Border Patrol launched tear gas over the border at the group, which included women and children, and subsequently shut down the crossing for six hours.[105] Photographs of the incident received significant media attention and sparked extensive international commentary. 42 migrants were arrested, and a total of 4 Border agents were struck by rocks.[106]

In the United States, the migrant caravan was a major issue for President Donald Trump and other Republicans and conservatives in the 2018 mid-term elections. Immigrant invasion rhetoric was used by conservative commentators on Fox News. The caravan was described as an "invading horde" by Laura Ingraham, an "invasion" by Steve Doocy, "a full-scale invasion by a hostile force" by Michelle Malkin,[107] "a criminal involvement on the part of these leftist mobs" and "a highly organized, very elaborate sophisticated operation" by Chris Farrell.[108] According to closed captioning transcripts, the word "invasion" was used in relation to the caravan more than 60 times on Fox News in October 2018 and more than 75 times on Fox Business.[109] Commentators noted that mentions of the caravan by Fox News dropped dramatically immediately following the 2018 midterm elections.[110][111][112]

Trump told supporters that there were "criminals and unknown middle easterners" in the caravan despite the lack of any publicized evidence for this charge.[113] Likewise, Vice President Pence in an interview with Fox News stated:

What the president of Honduras told me is that the caravan was organized by leftist organizations, political activists within Honduras, and he said it was being funded by outside groups, and even from Venezuela So the American people, I think, see through thisthey understand this is not a spontaneous caravan of vulnerable people.[114]

The Twitter account of the Department of Homeland Security's "confirmed" that within the caravan there were people who are "gang members or have significant criminal histories," but did not offer any evidence of ties. The National Rifle Association's NRATV alleged that "a bevy of left-wing groups" were working with George Soros and the Venezuelan government "to try to influence the 2018 midterms by sending Honduran migrants north in the thousands".[113]

On November 2, 2018, five days before the election, the Department of Homeland Security website issued a press release, "Myth vs. Fact: Caravan", stating that "over 270 individuals along the caravan route have criminal histories, including known gang membership" and citing the Mexican Ambassador to the US and Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete Prida to back their claim that the caravan contains criminal groups.[115]

One study by the National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at the University of Southern California and the Institute for Defense Analyses stated that the Central American immigrants the U.S. and claiming asylum had more in common with economic migrants than traditional refugees.[11]

Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador said: "Obviously, we have to help because Central American migrants pass through our territory and we have to bring order to this migration, make sure its legal."[116]

The 2019 survey found that 58% of Mexican respondents oppose migration from Central America.[117]

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Central American migrant caravans - Wikipedia

While the massive inflow of illegal migrants to the impoverished European Union member-state, hundreds of thousands strong, was slowed if never entirely stopped by a multi-billion-euro deal between the EU and Turkey, tens of thousands have remained on its Aegean islands, destroying local tourism and burdening the already struggling country at large.

Now, however, with Greeces aggressive neighbour having suspended both a bilateral agreement and an EU-level agreement on migrant readmissions, it appears that the floodgates are being gradually reopened, with The Times reporting that migrant landings have tripled in recent weeks.

The surge in migration, which had shifted first to Italy and then, after anti-mass migration populist Matteo Salvinis elevation to the Italian government to Spain in the years after the Greek route was brought under a semblance of control, appears to be causing the already overburdened Greek islands, in particular, to crack. Migrants have spread in around fifty camps spread across the islands, theGreek mainland, and the countrys northern borders and are looking set to swell to 100,000 people.

Where once illegal arrivals were averaging 60 a day, now they average 278, with almost 22,000 thought to have crossed the sea so far this year, according to The Times and more are penetrating the country via the land border with East Thrace, Turkeys last foothold in Europe after long centuries of Ottoman conquest and reconquest.

The Greek government has long accused Turkey of relaxing its borders so migrants can surge into Europe as a tool of punishment and manipulation in wider geopolitical battles over EU membership and the control of resources around contested islands and northern Cyprus, which it has illegally occupied since the 1970s.

[T]he Turkish president [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] controls the flows toward Greece and, by extension, to the European Union, complained an offiical at theGreek Citizens Protection Ministry in April 2018.

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Return of the Migrant Crisis: Greece Cracking as Sea ...

Its happening often enough now that theres a new routine in San Bernardino when it comes to dealing with Central American asylum seekers dropped into the community by federal agents.

First, two or three vans painted in the familiar colors of the U.S. Border Patrol, white with green striping, pull into the parking lot of a Greyhound Bus station, where they drop off at least 20 or more migrants. Next, immigrant rights advocates arrive and escort those migrants to a local Catholic Church, where they got a hot shower, some food and a bed for a night or two. Finally, after travel arrangements are settled, the migrants are again on the move, riding or flying to families throughout the United States.

In the past two weeks, more than 400 people, most from Guatemala, have passed through the city of San Bernardino in this fashion. Most have said they came to the U.S. border on their own, not with caravans, according to advocates. Many speak indigenous dialects as well as Spanish. Most are men traveling with children.

RELATED: As border detention fills up, asylum seekers are being dropped off in the Inland Empire

Though it spiked recently there, this transit pattern isnt limited to San Bernardino. Since fall, in neighboring Riverside County, advocates say more than 4,000 migrants have been dropped off by border agents, helped by local volunteers, and sent on to meet families around the country.

This under-the-radar flow of humanity which has been acknowledged by federal officials is straining the resources of advocates throughout the Inland Empire. Many volunteers, including some working virtually round the clock, question how long help can be extended to the new arrivals.

It seems this may go on for a long, arduous endeavor and we dont have the capacity to take care of these folks but for a few weeks or a month, said Fernando Romero, executive director of the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center.

But, then, we may have a human crisis in San Bernardino.

The sudden drop-offs in San Bernardino, which caught advocates there by surprise, has led to considerable speculation as to why Border Patrol is transferring the travelers to their community.

Some believe its related to the Trumps administration public threat to release immigrants into so-called sanctuary cities. Others said the administration is trying to build a case that they are at capacity because it is seeking more funds from Congress.

But San Bernardino might be a landing spot for more practical reasons.

The community has numerous organizations to help immigrants. And the Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino includes Riverside County, where the church already is heavily involved in helping migrants being dropped off there.

Border Patrol assumed the Diocese, or Catholic Charities, would provide some help in San Bernardino, said Emilio Amaya, executive director of the San Bernardino Community Services Center.

Usually, people apprehended by the Border Patrol are turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. But in October, facing an unprecedented number of asylum seekers at the U.S. border, the Border Patrol began dropping off migrants in places like Blythe and Coachella.

Now, in Coachella, the places that can offer shelter are at capacity. Meanwhile, the Greyhound station in Indio, where many migrants hoped to catch a bus to get to their families didnt have enough capacity to transport so many people. After that, Amaya said, agents started taking people further north, to San Bernardino.

Its a capacity issue more than a political issue, he said.

Immigration authorities say their facilities at the border are simply full, as record-number of Central American migrants are making their way to the United States to escape poverty and violence. More than 460,000 people were apprehended at the Mexican border from October through April. Including those who were immediately refused entry about 71,000 people the seven-month number surpasses the total for the last fiscal year, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has reported.

Most of the people apprehended, 64%, are families. And because border facilities arent built to house youth or adults with children, the flood of young arrivals is straining resources and creating unsafe conditions, authorities say.

There also are federal laws that limit how long the Border Patrol can detain migrant children in custody.

For the first time in Border Patrol history, nearly half of the adults we apprehended in April brought children, said Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost, on May 8, during testimony before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on border security.

The migrants, she believes, received the message loud and clear: Bring a child. You will be released. The result, she added, is a humanitarian and a border security crisis.

Provost said the flood of families also creates a security problem.

The focus on processing families leaves federal agents with less capacity to watch out for potential criminal single adults. Over the past fiscal year, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 3,500 people who, Provost said, had gang affiliations and criminal histories. She added that assaults on border agents were up 20 percent.

We need to know who and what is crossing our border, Provost testified. But that is nearly impossible when our manpower is diverted.

Ericka Flores, right, with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, helps migrants connect with their relatives in the U.S. after Border Patrol agents dropped them off in San Bernardino last week. She takes a group to a Greyhound bus station where they begin their journey on Sunday, May 20, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ericka Flores, with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, helps migrants connect with their relatives in the U.S. after Border Patrol agents dropped them off in San Bernardino last week. She takes a group to a Greyhound bus station where they begin their journey on Sunday, May 20, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Ericka Flores, left, with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, helps migrants connect with their relatives in the U.S. after Border Patrol agents dropped them off in San Bernardino last week. She takes a group to a Greyhound bus station where they begin their journey on Sunday, May 20, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Joaquin Covarrubias with Hispanos Unidos, covers the eyes of Gustavo,11, to surprise him with a birthday cake and presents on Sunday, May 19, 2019. Immigrant-rights agencies have stepped in to help Central American migrants with temporary housing, food and other assistance after Border Patrol agents began dropping them off last week in San Bernardino. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A child plays in the hallway of temporary housing provided by immigrant-rights agencies after Border Patrol agents began dropping off migrants last week in San Bernardino. The agencies are helping the Central Americans with temporary housing, food and other needs. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Ericka Flores with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, helps migrants connect with their relatives in the U.S. after Border Patrol agents dropped them off in San Bernardino last week. She holds bus tickets that will be used to get some to relatives living in the U.S. on Sunday, May 20, 2019. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

All the migrants dropped off in San Bernardino have come after being processed at the Border Patrols El Centro Sector in the Imperial Valley, home to Border Patrol stations in El Centro, Calexico, Indio and Riverside, said Ralph DeSio, a spokesman for the San Diego office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. All people who are apprehended by Border Patrol agents at places other than official points of entry are considered to be breaking the law, even if they are asylum seekers who turn themselves in, DeSio noted.

But the border stations are temporary processing facilities not designed to hold people for long periods. DeSio said they are not equipped to house large numbers of people, especially children.

In the U.S. Customs and Border Protections El Centro Sector, the migrants are released only after being processed and told to reappear in immigration court on a specific date. Because of the backlog in the courts, and the flood of new arrivals, those appearance dates typically one to three years in the future.

Meanwhile, the San Diego Sector is receiving three planes a week, each carrying up to 125 migrants, sent from the Border Patrol in Texas. Those migrants are not being released into the community but are transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in San Diego for further processing or possible deportation, DeSio said.

Theyre catching 3,000 to 4,000 people across the whole southwest border a day, DeSio said. You could fill a stadium with these people in a few days.

The enormity of this is flying over many peoples heads.

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the DC-based Migration Policy Institute think tank, said the transfers by Border Patrol might be a sign that our immigration enforcement system is breaking down at the border.

The government also is sending some asylum seekers to Mexico to await the long process through the much-touted Migrant Protection Protocols program also known as Remain in Mexico. The program is ongoing, pending court hearings, but its only being implemented in certain areas. And even in areas where the program is in place, Pierce noted, not every migrant is being sent back to Mexico.

In San Bernardino, in addition to the Catholic Diocese, dozens of community organizations are mobilizing volunteers and seeking donations to help the new, temporary arrivals.

Some volunteers show up to drive a family to the airport, or pitch in for a few hours to sift through donated clothes, backpacks and blankets. Others take longer shifts, sometimes through the night, to stay with the migrants who stay either in a local Catholic Church or a budget motel, which is their last stop before traveling to their American-based relatives.

The process, which appears orderly in many ways, sometimes includes some twists.

Some migrants, for example, have been stopped at Ontario International Airport by Transportation and Security Administration agents, who told the travelers that they lacked proper documentation to board a plane, advocates said. And in a bizarre incident on Wednesday, May 22, some advocates drove after two Border Patrol vans because they feared the agents might drop off migrants far away.

We wanted to make sure the people inside the vans were safe, said Anthony Victoria, a spokesman for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, based in Jurupa Valley.

But Amaya said that the Border Patrol agents thought the advocates were anti-immigration protesters, and they drove away from the trailing cars simply because they wanted to avoid any potential conflict.

Theres already been online talk from groups talking about doing something soon, Amaya said.

Advocates are meeting with local and state officials, and calling various foundations, looking for funding to help get the migrants to their relatives across the United States.

To address the drop-offs in Riverside County, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently transferred $521,000 from a state Rapid Response Reserve Fund to Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. (Last month, Newsom traveled to El Salvador to discuss the issues that are driving people to flee to the U.S.)

Unless the city and the county step forward, we dont have the capacity to continue (to help people) indefinitely, Amaya said.

The only reason we responded is because we had no choice. But this is not sustainable.

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Migrant crisis spreads from border into Inland Empire ...

Anders Knape warned that the Swedish municipalities may not be able to handle the costs of so many new migrants taking residency in Sweden as part of the family reunification programme, and, according to areportin the newspaper Aftonbladet, said, [Sweden is] facing the second wave of refugee reception, the family migration.As we dont know how big it gets.It can be extremely powerful and mean that we are approaching the figures we experienced in 2015 and 2016.

Much of the family migration will end up, at least initially, in places that already have a strained situation, Knape explained. Several municipalities in Sweden are already feeling the effects of mass migration, with some leaders, such asUrban Hansson Brusewitz, head of theNational Institute of Economic Research (KI), saying that the local governments could be forced to raise taxes as a result.

Fredrik Sderberg Bruce, Head of Press at the Migration Board, resisted Knapes claims, however, saying: In 2019, we estimate that approximately 27,000 people will be received in the countrys municipalities, then reduce to about 20,000 people in 2020 and 2021. This can be compared with 2016 and 2017 when approximately 68,000 people were received in the countrys municipalities annually.

Knape responded that, while he did not want to mislead people, the Migration Board had also been wrong in the past: The regulations facilitate family migration.This may mean that over time, a large group will come and we must be prepared for it in our operations, he explained.

Sweden, with a population of only around 10 million, is expected to receive far more family reunification migrants this year, withSwedish Minister of Migration Morgan Johansson arguing that the increase would be good for integration efforts.

I think it is a very good humanitarian measure, it is about 90 percentwomen and children who have long lived in refugee camps who can now be reunited with their father or husband in Sweden, Johansson claimed.

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Swedish Municipalities Head: Chain Migration Causing New Migrant Crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday opened the door to President Donald Trumps proposal for emergency funds to address a migrant surge at the southern U.S. border, saying some money to alleviate the humanitarian crisis could be included in pending disaster relief legislation.

FILE PHOTO - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Pelosi was not talking about money for the border wall Trump wants, which Democrats oppose. Republican Trump on May 1 requested $4.5 billion for programs that house, feed, transport and oversee record numbers of Central American families seeking asylum and straining capacity at migrant shelters in border cities.

Democrats initially questioned whether the administration was seeking more funding to expand the detention of migrants entering the United States illegally. But now they are willing to spend several billion dollars on humanitarian needs at the border, according to a House Democratic aide.

Pelosi told reporters on Thursday she hoped some assistance for the humanitarian crisis at the border could be inserted in a bill congressional leaders are working on to help Americans rebound from a string of natural disasters, from wildfires to floods and hurricanes.

What is happening at the border is tragic and we hope to address some of that in the supplemental, the disaster supplemental, to provide some of the resources that are needed there, Pelosi said. She provided no details.

Democrats made a thoughtful offer to Republicans on Thursday evening of several billion dollars for humanitarian needs at the border, the House Democratic aide said. He did not reveal the specific amount.

Some parts of the administrations request - like increasing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention beds - are nonstarters, which is why we have excluded them from our offer, said the aide. He said Democrats also sought oversight provisions to protect the dignity and rights of migrants.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said this week that the number of people apprehended at the border since Oct. 1 was nearly 520,000, the highest level in a decade. In the past week, there was an average of 4,500 arrests a day.

Trump earlier this year declared the immigration influx a national emergency, which allowed him to circumvent Congress to redirect more than $6 billion in funding to start building the border wall that he campaigned on. His move has been challenged in courts.

Republicans welcomed Pelosis comments and said they hoped this would speed things along in the lengthy negotiations over disaster aid. Previously the sticking point was Republican resistance to Democratic requests for additional money for Puerto Rico, devastated by a hurricane in 2017. Those arguments have been largely resolved, Democrats said.

Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien

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U.S. Speaker Pelosi opens door to more funds for border migrant crisis ...